Chapter 1366

The tires squeaked over the gravel.

In the endless desert, a Mars rover is marching slowly against the flying sand.

In the forbidden area of life, which has not been disturbed for a long time, except for the all terrain survey vehicle operated by AI, only a few microbes are surviving.

Time seems to take away everything it can.

In this dead world, every gravel is carved with desolation.

But for the dead planet, today is definitely a significant day.

With the roar of the engine coming down the thin atmosphere, a silver white ring slowly landed from the air. Four long flames and air currents pushed an arc umbrella in front of it, blowing away the red sand on the ground from afar, and even set off a large-scale sandstorm.

It seems to hear the movement from the sky. The all terrain survey vehicle tentatively turns the full angle camera at the top, casting a "confused" view into the air.

It is this glance back that records the breathtaking scene.

Like a comet hitting the ground, when the ring hit the ground, the umbrella shaped flame was instantly extinguished. Instead, the rolling sand and dust rushed into the sky like a backward waterfall and opened the dark sky like a muddy cloud.

[data has been included Label setting. ]

the setting is complete. ]

the words without feelings flashed from the display screen. The "reptile", who lost interest in the silver white ring, continued to move forward along the original route. Its owner set up a task to explore the topography and natural resources of the surface of Mars.

It's been doing this for years, and it's going to be doing it until it's mechanical or it's running out of power. Unlike the AI it communicates with, it has no extra curiosity about anything but records.

I didn't have a face-to-face meeting with this "colleague" who came to Mars earlier. After landing, the colonial module didn't even have a rest, and immediately started the deployment work.

About four or five meters long, the alloy pole went straight into the ground and fixed the colonial cabin firmly on the ground.

Then the silvery white metal shell expanded outward in four directions, just like the expanding doughnut, spreading out the planting area similar to the air bag.

The deployment was very smooth.

It's just like they've practiced countless times in the desert of Northwest China.

Standing in the communication room of the colonial cabin, Liang Youcheng connected to Xu Fu hovering in the orbit through the console and made a brief report on the current situation.

"This is the outpost of Mars colony. We have landed successfully."

"The climate and environment here are worse than we thought, but fortunately everything goes well The colonial module has been deployed. So far, the operation of the device is stable, and there is no troublesome failure. "

"After a little rest, we will start today's work immediately."

Liang Youcheng sent the brief message to the Jinling space launch center and updated it to the Xufu mission log.

Next, there are a series of routine rituals, such as walking out of the cabin, putting in flags and taking photos.

Just as these rituals were going on, a four-wheel Mars rover, which looked like an off-road vehicle, slowly drove out of the garage outside the buffer room, led by Dr. Fan, a planetary geologist, and drove straight into a sand sea.

His destination is the "water source" 7.2km away from the colonial module.

There is an underground ice layer 20 meters below the surface, which is located in the center of a small basin. According to the estimated data provided by Jinling Institute of higher learning, its reserve scale is about 150-400 million cubic meters.

Although many reservoirs on the earth can easily complete this reserve scale, compared with the water resources on the moon, this reserve has been able to highlight the "vast land and abundant resources" of Mars.

For this colonial outpost, water is the first thing to be ensured. It means that fresh water resources and oxygen are the most fundamental material basis for the operation of the whole artificial ecosystem.

Secondly, solar energy, wind energy and other renewable resources.

Although the thin and turbid atmosphere on Mars makes solar and wind energy less easy to use, it is better to collect energy locally than to use expensive nuclear energy.

After all, the fusion technology used in space station and spacecraft is a little different from that used in Pangu reactor.

The latter is a serious magnetic confinement ignition device, which releases star level energy. Every link from ignition to heat emission has been designed according to local conditions, and hundreds of engineers are needed to maintain the stable operation of the device.

The former is only a pulse fusion device based on the phenomenon of sonoluminescence in liquid metal.Although the size of this device is countless times smaller than Pangu reactor, Xihe reactor and a series of Big Macs, the efficiency of energy utilization, total power and cost per unit power are far less than the former.

And that's one of the reasons why even though the Moon Palace is equipped with such fusion cells, it still has solar panels that are many times larger than its body.

At present, Jinling Institute of higher research is studying how to build a simplified first-generation magnetically confined ignition device on the moon to power the imcrc Collider and other "high-power experimental equipment" in the lunar scientific research station, and at the same time to inspire the second-generation helium fusion technology, liberate the productivity of Guanghan special economic zone.

After all, after all these years of development, the energy gap on the moon is not small. It's hard to rely on solar panels and power storage stations.

As for the "Mars research station" which does not even have a name at present

Don't think about this kind of forced power supply.

The rover stopped in the center of the basin, and fan Tong, who was walking down from the rover, put down the mobile drilling hole behind the rover, and skillfully operated the flat plate in his hand. First, he measured the stratum data with seismic wave, and then took multiple sets of core samples for the strata 10 and 20 meters deep in three areas.

"Core sampling completed."

After a series of current sounds, the voice of Captain Liang came from the communication channel very quickly.

"How is it?"

"It's unbelievable I mean it's unbelievable in a positive sense, "leaning against the retracted mobile drilling equipment behind the Mars rover, fan Tong looked at the tablet in his hand, and his face was full of strange expressions," the data provided by Jinling Institute of higher learning is accurate and unimaginable, which makes people wonder if they have been to Mars secretly How did they collect such accurate data. "

Liang Youcheng is not very clear about this, but he is not particularly interested in these details. As the world's top research institution, Jinling Institute of higher learning naturally has its own way.

Besides, they also have academician Lu.

Any unthinkable thing, put in that man's body, can appear reasonable rise.

"Maybe it was from the wreckage of the new Virginia that the Yankees were collected. It seems that it was a long time ago In spite of him, since the information is accurate, we won't have to worry about fresh water resources in these three years. "

More than 100 million cubic meters of fresh water reserves.

Let alone three years, that is, their population has doubled ten times, and it will not be used up for three hundred years.

Originally, the colonial module was eco-friendly, with a very long and small demand for external resources input. If the situation is optimistic, they can even achieve a complete internal circulation of water resources, but the energy consumption will be relatively more.

"Is there anything else?"

"Well There is one more thing I have to report to you. "

With a little excitement in his tone, fan continued.

"When I was doing seismic wave detection, I found a It's a little exaggerated earthquake crack. "

"Earthquake cracks?" Liang Youcheng frowned, "are you sure Is it an earthquake crack? "

"I'm sure! There is absolutely no mistake, that kind of fault structure can only be produced by natural seismic activity. Because the terrain is relatively low, it is very lucky not to be buried by the sandstorm! But surprisingly, according to the information I learned in the literature, the geological activity of Mars should have stopped billions of years ago. This kind of geological structure is common in the active area of plate movement Very unusual. Can I go down and have a look? "

Planetary geology is his major.

At this moment, the excitement in his heart is beyond words.

Although it is only a small fracture, its discovery may rewrite the human civilization's cognition of Mars! As a scholar, is there anything more exciting?

Compared with Dr. Fan's excitement, Liang Youcheng seems more calm.

After a moment's deliberation, he finally vetoed the risky proposal out of prudence.

"You should come back first. Your task today is over. It's better not to make extra efforts."

Fan Tong: "I promise you, there will be no danger! It's only about 10 meters deep. I can climb up without a safety rope Of course, I'll tie it to my waist. "

"Now come back, it's an order," Liang Youcheng said in an irresistible voice. "Take your findings and record them in today's work log. Tomorrow I will let mingwenzhe follow you."

After a long silence, a sigh came from the communication channel.

"Well You're right. "

Some reluctant to look at the fracture behind him, fan Tong sadly shook his head, threw the tools back to the rover, and re entered the cockpit.

Looking at the positioning signal returning from the screen, Liang Youcheng, standing in the communication room, was relieved at last.Identifying freshwater resources is the last task today.

Everything is going well from landing to now. He doesn't want to do anything out of the blue.

Nevertheless, his heart was also full of curiosity about the "earthquake crack" that should not have appeared.

He has made up his mind. When Dr. Fan comes back, he will ask him to report the situation to the ground command center. It is up to the researchers on earth to decide whether to conduct further investigation